God’s salvation is exceedingly full and complete. It includes forgiveness and cleansing of sins, redemption from the demands of the law, reconciliation to God, sanctification, justification, freedom from bondage, regeneration, and much more! Of all these aspects of salvation, only regeneration is related to life. It is by regeneration that the very life of God is imparted into us.
Regeneration is the center of the experience of salvation, because God’s central purpose in saving us is that we may have His life. It is for this that He has forgiven our sins and cleansed us; it is for this that He has sanctified and justified us; it is for this that He has set us free. He has accomplished all these things for one purpose — to regenerate us. Regeneration, therefore, is the central part of God’s salvation.
By regeneration we begin to experience the very life of God. Before we were regenerated, we had no dealings with the life of God. But now we have many experiences of the life of God because the moment we were regenerated, His life came into us.
In John 3:5 the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to be born of water and the Spirit. What does this mean? In his ministry, John the Baptist told people that they had to repent and to realize that they were sinful and were good for nothing except burial. Those who heard John’s preaching and repented were baptized in water. This meant that, as sinful, fallen men of the old creation, they were being terminated. Repentance and baptism with water was the central point of John the Baptist’s ministry. This is what it means to be born of water.
Regeneration, then, is to terminate people of the old creation with all their deeds and to germinate them in the new creation with the divine life. Whenever a person repents, confessing that he is a sinner who is good for nothing except burial, he is accepting John’s ministry. After repenting, he must believe in the Lord Jesus and accept His ministry of life in order to be germinated. For salvation, we need both repentance and faith. This is what it means to be born of water and of the Spirit, and this is regeneration.
John told people that his ministry was for the ministry of the Lord Jesus. The termination of our old life is for the germination of His life in us. The center of the ministry of the Lord Jesus is the Spirit, that is, to germinate people with a new life in the new creation.
“Born of water and the Spirit” does not imply regeneration through or by means of baptism. While the Bible does speak of being saved through water (1 Pet. 3:20-21), it never speaks of regeneration through water. These are not equivalent terms. To be saved through water mainly refers to being separated from this present evil age. During the time of the flood in Genesis 6—8, Noah and his family were saved from the judgment of God by being in the ark, which is a type of Christ. On the other hand, they were saved from that perverted and evil generation by the waters of the flood. The waters terminated that generation, separating and saving Noah and his family from its corruption.
Regeneration is also the beginning of the new man within us. All our experiences of spiritual life are matters of the new man who begins within us at the time of our regeneration. Before we were regenerated, we were in Adam, a fallen sinner, an old man. Once we were regenerated, God’s life in Christ entered into us. This life is a new element, and when it mingles with our spirit it becomes the new man within us. Therefore, every one of us who has been regenerated is a double man. We are on the one hand the old, fallen man in Adam, and we are on the other hand the new, regenerated man in Christ.
According to the Bible, to be regenerated is to be born of the Spirit (John 3:3-6). Before regeneration our spirit was dead. “And you, though dead in your offenses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). But at the time we believed, God’s Spirit came into us and mingled with our spirit (1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 8:16). Thus, our spirit obtained God’s life and was made alive. Whereas our parents gave us our natural birth, God’s Spirit has given us our spiritual birth.
Regeneration also means to be born again or born anew. Originally we were born of our parents, but now we are born once more, this time of God. The Bible calls this experience being born again. When we were born of our parents, we obtained human life. When we were born of God, we obtained God’s divine life.
Regeneration is not self-improvement or better behavior. It is a rebirth which brings in a new life. It is absolutely a matter of life, not a matter of doing. We have already received the human life from our parents; now we need to receive the divine life from God. For us to have another life we must have another birth. When we have the life of God, we are the sons of God. The life of God gives us the right and authority to become the sons of God (John 1:12). By this life we possess the divine nature of God, and have a life-relationship with God (2 Pet. 1:4). We do not need religious or ethical teachings to regulate and correct us; we need another life, the life of God, to regenerate us.
We need to be regenerated because of two conditions. From the negative side, we need to be regenerated because our life has been corrupted and has become evil, and cannot be improved from evil to good. “The heart is deceitful above all things / And it is incurable; / Who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9). “Can the Cushite change his skin, / Or the leopard his spots? / Then you also may be able to do good, / Who are accustomed to do evil” (13:23). “For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells” (Rom. 7:18).
From the positive side, however, we need to be regenerated because we do not have the life of God. Of all God’s creation, man has the highest development of life. No plant or animal has a higher life than man. Yet man, the highest created life, needs to receive another life for his completion. He needs the uncreated, eternal life of God. When Adam was created, he obtained only created life; he did not at that time obtain God’s uncreated life. Likewise, when we were born of our parents, we obtained only the natural, created human life. That birth gave us an entrance into the human kingdom. But for us to enter the kingdom of God, we must have another birth from another source. We must be born of God. By our first birth we were born into the kingdom of darkness, but by our second birth we are transferred into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Col. 1:13).
God’s purpose is that we may obtain His own uncreated life and be transformed by this life into His image to be like Him. Even if our human life had not been corrupted by the fall of man in Genesis 3, we would still need to be regenerated. In Genesis 1 and 2, Adam was without sin, yet he was void of God’s life. Thus, God placed him before the tree of life that he might receive the life of God and be regenerated. God’s purpose in creating man is not merely to obtain a sinless man, but even more to have a God-man, one who has God’s own life and nature.
John 3 speaks of the new birth. It also contains a wonderful example of one who needed a new birth — Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a person of excellent virtue. He was a teacher with a high attainment in education. As a teacher of the Jews, he taught the Old Testament, the sacred Word. Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews. He had a position of honor and authority. As an old man, he was full of experiences, and morally, he was an honest and good man. Nicodemus was also a man who was truly seeking after God. Although he was somewhat fearful of the Pharisees, he still came to the Lord Jesus by night. This indicated that he was seeking God. Nicodemus was an old man of perhaps sixty or seventy years of age, yet he came to see the Lord Jesus, who was only a little over thirty years of age. This indicated his humility. Although he was a teacher, he addressed the Lord Jesus as Rabbi. Among the Jews, to call a person Rabbi implies that you are humbling yourself. Could you find a better person than Nicodemus? Surely he was a man of superior standard, great attainment, and high morality.
When Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus, the Lord took the opportunity to reveal the basic need of man. In His conversation with Nicodemus, the Lord revealed that regardless of how good we are, we still need regeneration. Regeneration is the primary need of man. Moral people, as well as immoral people, need to be regenerated. Some Christians hold the mistaken concept that people need regeneration simply because they are sinful and fallen. However, if man had never fallen into sin, he still would have needed regeneration because he was lacking the life of God. That is why God put him before the tree of life (Gen. 2:9). The tree of life represents the very life of God. If Adam had partaken of the tree of life, he would have received the life of God and been regenerated.
Since we are human beings, we all have human life. The question is not whether our human life is good or bad. Regardless of the kind of human life we have, as long as we do not have the divine life, we need to be regenerated. To be regenerated simply means to receive the divine life in addition to our human life. God’s eternal purpose is for man to be a vessel to contain the divine life. We are earthen vessels to contain God as life (2 Cor. 4:7). This is the true meaning of regeneration.
Due to the influence of human culture and the Jewish religion, Nicodemus thought that men needed to behave properly. He supposed that in order for men to have good conduct and worship God in a proper way, they need much teaching. Since Nicodemus considered Christ to be a teacher who had come from God, he may have thought that he needed better teachings to improve himself. But the Lord’s answer in the following verse unveiled to him that his need was to be born again. To be born again is to be regenerated with the divine life — a life other than the human life received by natural birth. His real need was not better teachings, but the divine life. We do not need religion or teachings to regulate and correct us; we need another life — the life of God — to regenerate us.
When Nicodemus heard that he had to be born again, he thought it meant that he had to return to his mother’s womb and come out again. Then the Lord Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6). He was saying to Nicodemus that even if he could go back into his mother’s womb and be born a second time, he would still be the same. He did not need another birth in time, but another birth in nature.
The Lord Jesus was very wise in using Nicodemus as the example of regeneration. If He had used the sinful woman in John 4 as the example, we might conclude that only sinful people need to be born again. Outwardly, Nicodemus had no moral or sinful problems. But he lacked the life of God. Because the Lord used a good man, Nicodemus, for His example, we can see that whether we are good or bad, we all need regeneration — we all need to receive the life of God.
Since regeneration means to be born of God, it automatically causes us to become the children of God (John 1:12-13). We are His children and He is our Father. The divine life we receive through regeneration is our authority to be His children. It is also a guarantee that one day, through the transformation of our soul and the glorification of our body, we shall enjoy full sonship.
The old creation has nothing of God’s divine element in it. That is why it is old and decaying. By regeneration, God’s element is added into us and we become a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). This new creation is a marvelous mystery, for it is the very mingling of God and man. It is both man and God, and it has both the human and the divine elements within it.
By regeneration we not only obtain God’s life with its divine elements, but we are also united with God as one. God the Spirit enters our spirit, causing us to be joined to Him as one spirit. “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). What a marvelous and deep relationship is this — that in at least one part of our being — our spirit — we are fully one with God! This oneness with God is deepened and increased by the transformation of our soul, and will reach its full development by the glorification of our body, which will cause even our body to be one with God.
The first and primary thing we receive through regeneration is the life of God. All of the capabilities, functions, and activities of a living being originate with its life. Even its appearance and outward expression are determined by its life. God has the highest life. All that God is and all that is in God, are in the life of God. The divine nature of God is also contained within the life of God. All that He is — whether truth, holiness, light, or love — is derived from His life.
Included also in the life of God is that great power which resurrected the Lord Jesus from the dead. When the Lord Jesus entered into death, death used all its power to hold Him, but the Lord broke through the holding power of death and arose. He was not restrained by death because in Him is the powerful life of God (Eph. 1:19-20). This is the very life we receive when we are regenerated.
A law is a regulation, a constant and unchanging rule. The law of life is the natural characteristic, the innate, automatic function of a certain kind of life. The higher a life is, the higher is its law. Since the life of God is the highest life, its law is the highest. This highest law is the functioning of the divine life. With every kind of life, whether it is vegetable, animal, human, or divine, there is an automatic and innate function. That function is the law of that particular life. For example, a peach tree has a life-law that causes it to bear peaches. A peach tree does not need someone to teach it to bring forth peaches rather than apples. There is an inward law which does not allow the peach tree to produce apples and which causes it spontaneously to bear peaches.
The law of life which the life of God brings into us contains the laws mentioned in Hebrews 8:10, which God has put into our minds and inscribed on our hearts. These laws are different from the laws of the Old Testament. The laws of the Old Testament were written on stone tablets outside of man (Exo. 34:1, 28). The laws of life are the laws of God which God has written with His Spirit on our heart. The laws which were written on the stone tablets are outward laws, laws of letter, dead laws, and laws without power; they are laws which are unable to accomplish anything within man (Rom. 8:3; Heb. 7:18-19). But the laws which are written on the tablet of our heart are inward laws with great power; they enable us not only to know the heart-desire of God and to follow His will, but also to know God Himself and to express God Himself.
The divine life we receive by regeneration is living, spontaneous, active, and aggressive within us. It is always regulating our behavior from within, enabling us to know how God desires us to act and behave. Because of this, even the youngest Christian does not need outward teachings and rules, but rather needs to pay his fullest attention to the regulating of the inward law of life.
“The law of the Spirit of life” mentioned in Romans 8:2 is the law of life which is in us. Because this law is derived from the life of God, and cannot be separated from the Spirit of God, Romans 8 calls this law “the law of the Spirit of life.”
Ezekiel 36:26 tells us that when God cleanses us, saves us, and regenerates us, He gives us a new heart. What is a new heart? A new heart is an old heart that God has renewed. After this verse says that God gives us a new heart, it says that He takes away our stony heart and gives us a heart of flesh. Thus, God gives us a new heart by renewing our old heart.
Before we were saved, our heart opposed God, did not desire God, and was as hard as stone toward God. So it is called a “stony heart.” But when the Holy Spirit regenerated us, He caused our heart to repent of sin and to become soft toward God.
Our heart represents us with regard to our inclination, affection, delight, and desire toward things. Before we were regenerated, our heart was inclined toward sin and the world, but it was cold and hard toward God and spiritual things. Once we are regenerated and saved, our heart inclines toward God, loves God, and desires God. It also desires and delights in spiritual and heavenly things. Whenever such things are mentioned, our heart rejoices.
Ezekiel 36:26 also says that God puts a new spirit in us. This does not refer to the Holy Spirit, but to our human spirit. What is a new spirit? Just as the new heart is the old heart made new, so the new spirit is the old spirit made new. The old spirit, when it is renewed, is made alive. “Even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:5). The problem with our old heart is its hardness; the problem with our old spirit is its deadness. But praise the Lord! After regeneration our heart is soft toward God, and our spirit is alive toward God.
The spirit of man was originally created to be the organ for man to contact God. In Genesis 1 and 2, man had fellowship with God and communed with God through and by his human spirit. “The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, / Searching all the innermost parts of the inner being” (Prov. 20:27). “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness” (John 4:24). “For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son” (Rom. 1:9). Philippians 2:1 says, “if any fellowship of spirit.” In Genesis 3, because of man’s fall, his spirit was damaged by the defilement of sin, and having lost its function toward God, became a dead spirit. When man’s spirit became dead, God considered the whole man as dead (Eph. 2:5).
When we are regenerated, the blood of the Lord Jesus cleanses the defilement which our spirit suffered. The Spirit of God then puts the life of God into our spirit and enlivens it (Col. 2:13). By this, our dead, old spirit is renewed and becomes a living, new spirit. When God regenerated us, He worked from two sides. On one hand He used the blood of the Lord Jesus to cleanse away the defilement of our spirit so that our spirit became clean. On the other hand by His Spirit He put His life into our spirit so that our spirit could have His divine element. He thus renews our old spirit making it a new spirit.
Since at the time of our regeneration God had already given us a new heart, why does He proceed further to put a new spirit in us? It is because our heart can only desire and love God; it cannot contact God or touch Him. He must put a new spirit in us so that we may contact Him and fellowship with Him.
Ezekiel 36:27 goes on to say that God puts His own Spirit within us. When God regenerated us, He put His life into our spirit, enlivening our dead spirit, and He also put His Spirit into our spirit. Romans 8:9 says, “The Spirit of God dwells in you,” and verse 16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit.” These two verses show that the Spirit of God dwelling in us dwells in our spirit. Once the Spirit comes into our spirit, we are one spirit with the Lord. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”
“But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness” (Rom. 8:9-10). These two verses show us that the Spirit of God dwelling in us is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us and the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us is Christ Himself dwelling in us. The Spirit of God in us is the very embodiment of Christ. When we believe, God through His Spirit reveals Christ in us (Gal. 1:16). Once we receive Christ as Savior, He as the Spirit dwells in us (2 Cor. 3:17; 13:5). Christ is the incarnation of God, the embodiment of God. All that God is and all the fullness of the Godhead dwell in Christ bodily (Col. 2:9). Therefore, Christ dwelling in us causes us to be filled unto all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:17-19).
Since Christ is the embodiment of God, and since regeneration causes us to receive Christ, it also causes us to have God. Furthermore, the Spirit is the reality of Christ. God is in Christ, and Christ is the Spirit. We know that God dwells in us by the Spirit which He has given us (1 John 3:24; 4:13). The Lord Jesus also told us that He and God together abide in us (John 14:23). When we have the Spirit dwelling in us, we have Christ and God dwelling in us. The Spirit, Christ, and God dwell in us as one.
When the Bible mentions the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, the emphasis is on His anointing us (1 John 2:27). When it mentions Christ dwelling in us, the emphasis is on His living in us as our life (Gal. 2:20), and when it mentions God dwelling in us, the emphasis is on His working in us (Phil. 2:13; Heb. 13:21; 1 Cor. 12:6). The Spirit, by anointing us, anoints the element of God into us. Christ, by living in us, lives the life of God both in us and out from us. God, by working in us, works His will into us that it may be accomplished upon us.
How wonderful are the items we receive through regeneration! We obtain the life of God and the law of this life, a new heart and a new spirit, the Holy Spirit, Christ, and God Himself. This is surely all we need! These are sufficient to make us victorious and transcendent above our problems and to cause us to grow and mature in life.
This is a wonderful point! According to the Bible, we were reborn when Christ was resurrected from the dead. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). Thus, our regeneration was accomplished once for all nineteen and one-half centuries ago. In our experience we were reborn some years ago, but from the divine perspective, our regeneration was fully accomplished when Christ was resurrected. Our experience of regeneration is based fully upon its already having been accomplished. It is one of the many wonderful bequests given to us in the New Testament.
Regeneration is an eternal birth relationship and can never be dissolved. No birth can be reversed. No one can become unborn once he is born. Just as this is a fixed principle in physical life, it is even more solid and substantial in the spiritual realm. Once we are born of God, we are eternally His children, regardless of our condition. Though we might turn away from the Lord temporarily, the birth relationship can by no means be terminated. This great fact gives us much confidence and boldness in the face of our failures and sin. No failure can terminate the birth relationship we have with God. Once our heart is turned again we can come boldly to our Father as His dear child.
God has a purpose. That purpose is to have on the earth a corporate new man. This new man is in God’s image to express Him and has been committed with God’s authority to exercise dominion over the Satan-usurped earth (Gen. 1:28; Col. 3:10-11). God’s purpose cannot be accomplished apart from God’s life. Only God’s life within us enables us to be in the reality of God’s image. Only God’s life within us enables us to exercise dominion over the enemy, Satan. Regeneration is our first experience of God’s life. The salvation of God is not primarily to save us from hell and to bring us into heaven, but rather to impart His divine life into us. By regeneration, we receive His divine life into our spirit. From our spirit, He is spreading into our soul by the process of transformation, and at His second coming, He will even saturate our body. That will be our glorification. Hallelujah for regeneration!
